A Former CINO (Catholic In Name Only) gradually learns and accepts the whole Magisterium Truth and Nothing but the Truth

February 01, 2009

The Sage in the White House

Gentle Reader: Some of you may have read this story about Kate Clinton leading a sage burning ceremony outside the White House to cleanse the area of the "evil spirits" of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

I know a lot of people got a big laugh out of it. Both the folks who think Bush and Cheney were evil, and those who think the entire ritual was absurd.

Sure, maybe it's funny that some folks in the crowd were smoking more than sage and hoping the sage would mask the smell of burning rope, but is it funny?

Was anything funny about President Obama's first week in office? Not too many pro-lifers were laughing as he overturned the Mexico legislation and expanded embryonic stem cell research. Is this pagan ceremony outside, even if it was disguised as light-hearted fun, a sign of paganism to come? Isn't President Obama the perfect President of the New Age?

My guess, and I don't have to guess too hard, is that many in the sage crowd probably voted for Obama. How many in the crowd claim to be “spiritual” but completely deny and refuse to belong to any denomination? Isn't that pretty much what the President does?

Thus far, President Obama, is the perfect New Age President. He is vague about his faith. He’s adaptable to the situation as it calls for it. He’s every thing and he’s no one thing. He’s a little this and a little that. He was educated in Catholic schools but, supposedly, not a Catholic (perfect since about ½ the world has the same cred). He's, reportedly, a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC) but he had no problem attending a prayer service on his first day in office in an Episcopalian church. He's attended Baptist churches in D.C.

When he got into hot water by association via some comments made by his Pastor during the campaign, he just picked up and left his UCC congregation. This is the kind of move that people who claim to be truly committed to a faith would not take lightly but he appears to have given it no more thought than changing his mind at breakfast from oatmeal to wheat toast. He’s very much reminiscent of the kinds of spiritual people I used to hang out with during my dissenting Catholic days: the Three Bears of Faith: Not too hard, not too soft, somewhere in the middle: just right (no left!)-neither! AAAARGH! Check the wind, which way is it blowing?

Here we have Pastor Rick Warren AND Bishop Gene Robinson -something for everybody? Really? Everybody in the middle or to the left that is. For all the perception in the media that Pastor Warren is a far right evangelical, it’s not clear to me what he really is and I think that’s part of his popularity. Like Obama he can adjust the strength of his rhetoric depending upon his audience. Bishop Robinson is decidedly far left. There are “Catholics” in the Obama camp but, quick, name ONE that actually follows Church teaching. I can’t think of one either.

The liberal left faith-based groups are really hoping they have a friend in Obama. They are counting on it. Pay CLOSE attention to the faith-based organizations the White House will back and court, in particular, the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. My guess is these groups are going to advocate for social justice, but their definition of social justice is going to conflict with Roman Catholic teachings on morality. You can bet on it.

Watch carefully to see if the Obama Administration is going to overturn the Bush Administration policy of allowing religious groups to hire only people of their own faith in federally funded projects. This may not seem like a big deal and it may seem like justice, but if folks who hold beliefs contrary to your faith see a way they can force their way in so they can try and influence your faith in an adverse way do you really want to have to hire them? Probably not, which means you better be ready with alternate funding.

Maybe this really wasn't a purification ritual but a welcoming ritual for a New Age leader, our new President.

As I said earlier in the week, the "Christ Hospital" that Jill Stanek worked was run by the UCC and the ELCA.

The UCC and ECUSA are very liberal denominations. Rick Warren has been leading churches of all stripes towards that "Bible doesn't matter" attitude, complete with endorsement of strange paraphrases. He has pushed for churches to go into deep hard rock -- note the popularity of "Family Force Five" and their endorsement of false teachers such as Rob Bell, who is a New Ager disguised as a "pastor". The rock songs used in these churches are secular -- not sacred. People don't even open their Bibles. It's all feel-good similar to what the Obama Nation wants. I'm scared the Senate could go into Full Obama Mode by stealing it to 60.

He's the new President, so I was trying to make a respectful comment, and not say reality, i.e. he and his cohorts are baby killers, he is a new anti-Christ, his religion is himself as his own god--and as the pied-piper he has many followers listening to what they want to hear.

But if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all?--well, I guess I can't say anything. Except for, it's not funny, not funny at all--he will cost our country dearly!

The evil spirits reminds me of the story I posted on the a while back. After a plane broke down with an electrical problem, instead of a legitimate repair, they sacrificed two goats to appease a "sky deity" on the tarmac.

Cathy, I've mentioned many times on the blog too about the postmodern philosophy of Rick Warren being dangerous. I also found a site (purposedrivel.com) that discussed one family being driven out of a church by Warrenism, and I've read many articles about this feel-good empty theology that dominates such churches. In this area, a Warrenist church is growing that they now meet in a former grocer's building. Jim Wallis and Rick Warren are two notable Religious Left figures.

His ideas of church are to eliminate doctrine and theology and replace it with feelings from so many things that God's Word is no longer taught. Many of these churches are of a "salvation by works" attitude and also teach no theology. Attending one service of those churches will show the problem. One notable member of such a church is Match Game 90 host Ross Shafer, whose wife Leah is a worship team singer at Saddleback.